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Jacob Jankowski
Work in Progress to become better "...After 8 years of castrations, dissections, and shoving my arm up a cow's ass more times than I care to remember..." -Jacob Jankowski ***Caution!! Spoiler alert!!!*** How He Comes to the Show Jacob Jankowski is the main character of Water for Elephants. His parents, on his final day of his Cornell Academy of Veteranary Science exams, get killed. To pay for his tuition, his parents had to take out a morgage on the house, causing him to have no home. At all. So he runs. He wanders along train tracks, finding a traveling circus, the Benzini Brothers Most Sectacualar Show On Earth. He jumps into the Liberty Horse car, and into the arms of a rather brutal man named Blackie, who almost "redlights" or throws him off the train. While it's moving. Then he meets a man named Camel. Camel is a bit nicer to him, and allows him to meet the circus's Ring Master "Uncle Al" and the Equestrian Director, August Rosenbluth. And as he says, "I don't know if I chose that train, or if that train chose me." He tells them that he is a Cornell "Graduate" and gets a job trying to fix the lead Liberty Horse, how, as Marlena Rosenbluth, August's wife, is a little off. Jacob immediatly falls in love with her, causing the main catalist of the story. His Job in the show Jacob, the next day, diagnoses the horse with a life-thretening condition, where "the connective tissues in the hoof are compromised, causing the coffin bone to rotate and eventually puncure the hoof." Or in short, unscientific terms, "Faltering." He later has to shoot him, killing the main act. August becomes enraged by this news, of course. But, as luck would have it, for rthe Benzini Bros. anyway, the crash of 1931 hit the circus world hard. Uncle Al eventually obtains a 51-year-old bull elephant named Rosie. But, Uncle Al spent the rest of the Benzini Bros' money on an elephant car, as well as Rosie herself. But, she knows no tricks, just stands in the managerie accepting food from the "rubes" or circus-goers. Jacob also makes friends with his bunkmate, a clown, Walter or Kinko. Rosie, you useless little prodigy One day, August gets fed up with Rosie's "uselesness" and beats her with the Bull Hook. As a man named Gzregorz, or Greg, tends to her wounds, he tells het to lift her leg. In Polish. And she obliges. As Jacob experiments with different phrases, he realises Rosie speakes Polish. Fluent Polish. August now immediatly falls in love with her. One day, August takes Marlena and Jacob out to dinner. There is a raid, panic, then a rush out. Marlena and Jacob lose August. Then kiss. Marlena kisses back, then panickes, and runs away. The situation is about to get ugly Marlena then avoids Jacob for a great bit of time. But eventually starts talking to him again. Then, on the day of a party Marlena throws together to celebrate Rosie's sucess, August flips his lid a little. He accuses Marlena and Jacob of having sex behind his back, then shoves marlena backwards. Jacob attacks him, defending the woman that he loves, regardless if she loves him back or not. After the security guard, Earl, hauls Jacob out by his armpits, August hits and punches Marlena. Jacob gets her to a hotel, where she stays the night. On top of all that, Camel, experiences a type of paralisis caused by Jamaica Ginger Extract. The situation is ugly, and now steadily deteriorating Uncle Al, when August tries to get Jacob to get Marlena back to him, tells him August in a Paranoid Schizophrenic. One day, Jacob goes to visit Marlena in the motel room he got for her. She unloads on him, giving him a full story of her life, from meeting August, to realizing he is a Paranoid Schizophrenic, to Jacob showing up, to August's reaction to him kissing her. Jacob finally confesses that he loves Marlena, and Marlena shows she loves him, too, but doesn't exactly say it. In words. They then have sex. The situation isn't even a situation anymore...I would just give up now if i were them... The next day, Jacob and Marlena wake up, and Marlena panics, noticing she's late for the spec. Jacob then says, as said in the book, "...Last night you said, 'I need you," You never said the word 'love.' So only I know how I feel. I love you, Marlena..." Marlens then whispers, "I love you too." And there you have it. Jacob has to lie low for the next few days. Not much happens with the Benzini Bros. In fact, life drones on monotonusly. They're raided, run out of town, raided, run out of town, raided, and run out of town. Uncle Al and August now can't pay the anyone, which never happens to the performers, just working men. Walter is extremley ''upset, and storms off. At the cookhouse, Marlena gives him some intersting news. Marlena is pregnant. ''All hell just broke loose Marlena has to perform and goes ino the arena. Jacob is then attacked by Blackie.